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Centrally located between the first Nevada settlement at Genoa and the precious metal deposits of the Comstock Lode, Eagle Valley, site of present Carson City, was a vital link in land communications. One of the key California emigrant routes, the Carson Branch of the California Emigrant Trail, crossing the Sierra Nevada at Kit Carson Pass, came through Eagle Valley roughly along Silver Sage Drive, a block east of this point. The first Overland telegraph, colloquially known as "Bee's Grapevine," from F.A. Bee, its builder, was completed from Placerville to Carson City in 1859. In this area, it followed what is now U.S. Highway 395. The Pony Express (1860-1861) and the Butterfield-Wells Fargo Overland stages (1862-1868) followed the same route. The Virginia & Truckee Railway in its extension to Carson Valley and Minden in 1906 used the route of Bigelow Drive six blocks east.
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